Various types of absorbent articles, such as urine-absorbing sheets for pets or disposable diapers, sanitary napkins or the like, when they are sold as products, are usually packaged by being housed in multiple numbers in a container such as a polyethylene bag or the like.
When multiple absorbent articles are packaged, the multiple absorbent articles are arranged in the thickness direction as a group of absorbent articles, and the absorbent article group is inserted through the insertion opening of a packaging container to be housed in the container, after which the opening is sealed.
When an absorbent article group is packaged in this manner, usually a packaging apparatus such as illustrated in PTL 1, for example, is used to move a receptacle holding the absorbent article group near to the opening of the packaging container, and the absorbent article group in the receptacle is forced into the container through the opening using a forcing member.
However, the package described in PTL 1 has a construction in which a mounting stage on which the absorbent article group is mounted is moved to the position at the opening of the container, which is situated at a different position, the absorbent article group on the mounting stage then being forced into it with a forcing member, and therefore the position at which the absorbent article group has been mounted on the mounting stage and the position of the container in which the absorbent article group has been housed are in a greatly separated state.
Thus, an operator conducting packaging of an absorbent article group has been obliged to move the container in which the absorbent article group is housed after the absorbent article group has been mounted on the mounting stage, and the series of packaging operations has been very troublesome, from placing the absorbent articles on the mounting stage, and then to housing the absorbent article group in the container and recovering it. Furthermore, in order to promptly carry out this series of packaging operations there is a need for two persons, an operator to mount the absorbent article group on the mounting stage and an operator to recover the container in which the absorbent article group has been housed, and this leads to the problem of poor working efficiency.